1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a homepage information production system wherein a radio data communication terminal machine such as a portable information terminal or a portable telephone set having an electronic mail function or a data transmission function is used as a user terminal which is a service client in an information providing system for providing information such as a homepage of the Internet to effect production of, amendment to or deletion of contents of information.
2. Description of the Related Art
A general construction of a conventional homepage information production system is described with reference to FIG. 9. A computer 6 directly connected to an Internet network 7 is connected to a homepage server 3 or a mail server 4 using the TCP/IP or the like which is an Internet protocol. Where a telephone network 11 is used for connection, a computer 9 is connected to the telephone network 11 through a modem 10 and further connected from the telephone network 11 through a modem 12 and an access server 8 to the Internet network 7 using the TCP/IP/PPP protocol or the like. An electronic mail is communicated between the Internet network 7 and the mail server 4 using the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) or the like. Between the homepage server 3 and the Internet network 7, the HTTP protocol is used for accessing to contents, but the FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is used for data transmission.
For registration of contents, either the contents are transferred as a file using the FTP protocol or contents of the homepage server 3 are edited directly using the Telnet protocol.
A general construction of a homepage information production system for a portable telephone system is described with reference to FIG. 10. A portable telephone packet communication terminal 13 connected to a portable telephone packet network 2 is connected to a homepage server 3 or a mail server 4 using a file transfer protocol for exclusive use for the system or the like. It is to be noted that also the WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) which is a protocol for a portable telephone set and for which standardization is being proceeded at present is one of such file transfer protocols.
FIG. 11 illustrates a concept of a command data format of the FTP protocol. The FTP protocol includes a xe2x80x9cPutxe2x80x9d command for writing a file and a xe2x80x9cGetxe2x80x9d command for reading out a file, and transmits, upon writing, a contents name and contents as a command but transmits, upon reading out, a contents name as a command. As a response upon reading out, contents are received.
A prior art registration operation of contents when the FTP is used operates as follows. After contents are produced in a unit of contents, they are written into a homepage server in accordance with a procedure wherein a client terminal directly logs in the homepage server, writes the produced contents into the homepage server and then logs out from the homepage server.
The conventional homepage information production system, however, has the following subjects to be solved. Firstly, since a homepage accessing protocol and a homepage registering protocol are both different from an electronic mail protocol, a portable telephone set or the like does not allow installation of a plurality of protocols from a restriction in terms of the memory capacity. Therefore, the homepage registering protocol is less likely to be installed. Consequently, if a user of a portable telephone set or the like intends to modify a homepage of the user itself using the portable telephone set or the like, it is necessary to use a personal computer or the like to establish a connection to the Internet. Therefore, it is impossible to edit contents of the homepage easily.
Secondly, a great number of users make use principally of electronic mails, and if a different protocol such as the FTP is installed additionally, then user operation is complicated and becomes cumbersome to such users.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a homepage information production system which has not only a function of allowing transmission/reception of an electronic mail and accessing to a homepage but also another function of allowing contents to be produced readily and registered into a homepage server.
In order to attain the object described above, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a homepage information production system, comprising a radio data communication terminal for producing contents production information to be published in a homepage server and transmitting the contents production information as a mail to a mail server together with a command for execution of the contents production information, and a homepage control server for producing contents to be written into the homepage server based on the contents production information of the mail received through the mail server in accordance with the command designated in the mail and registering the produced contents into the homepage server.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a homepage information production system, comprising a radio data communication terminal for producing contents production information to be published in a homepage server and transmitting the contents production information as a mail to a mail server together with a command for execution of the contents production information, and a homepage control server for producing, modifying or deleting contents of the homepage server based on the command, a contents name and the contents production information included in the mail from the radio data communication terminal received through the mail server.
In both of homepage information production systems, the mail server may receive the contents production information and perform discrimination a user of whether or not a transmitter of the mail is a registered person of a homepage, and then transfer the received mail to the homepage control server only when the transmitter of the mail is a registered person.
The radio data communication terminal may have application software installed therein for describing a command to the homepage control server in a subject field of the electronic mail to produce contents.
In this instance, the command to the homepage control server may be one or more of a new production command, an overwriting command and a deletion command for the contents production information, and a word replacement command, a sentence replacement command and a paragraph replacement command based on a keyword.
Alternatively, the command to the homepage control server may be a command for replacing a change object line range in the contents registered in the homepage server with the contents production information in the text and registering resulting contents production information.
As the mail information to be transmitted to the homepage control server through the mail server, contents production information based on which contents to be registered into the homepage server is to be produced may be described in the text of the electronic mail.
Alternatively, as the mail information to be transmitted to the homepage control server through the mail server, contents production information based on which contents to be registered into the homepage server is to be produced may be described in an accompanying file to the text of the electronic mail.
The homepage information production systems described above are both advantageous in that, since contents on the homepage server can be controlled with an electronic mail, registration of contents is possible without installation of the FTP protocol. This allows reduction of the capacity of a memory used in a portable information terminal such as a portable telephone set.
The homepage information production systems are advantageous also in that, since an electronic mail function which allows editing even on such a small screen as that of a portable telephone set is used, user operation is unnecessary.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like parts or elements are denoted by like reference symbols.